I was just checking today’s celebrity birthdays to see if there was someone whose natal chart I wanted to feature on this blog. I not only discovered that it’s Eve Plumb’s birthday, but that she shares her exact birthday (April 29, 1958) with Michelle Pfeiffer.

I love to do side-by-side comparisons of celebrity charts when I discover a pair of astro-twins. Unfortunately, only Michelle Pfeiffer’s time of birth is listed on astrotheme.com.

For a moment, I thought that it would be fun to do a speculative comparison of the two actresses. Eve Plumb was about eight years old when she first started getting acting gigs, and around eleven years old when she first started appearing as Jan Brady on “The Brady Bunch.” Pfeiffer, on the other hand, started getting minor gigs when she was about twenty years old, and twenty-three when she landed “Grease 2.” With that information, and an accurate birth time for Pfeiffer, it would be easy for me to “rectify” Eve Plumb’s horoscope because of the similar time frame (roughly three years) between their professional debuts and their first major role.

Rectification is the process by which an astrologer figures out an ascendant in a chart where there is no time of birth provided. Usually, major events in an individual’s life are considered and then placed into a context that makes sense in the mind of the astrologer engaging in the rectification process.

Nevertheless, it’s kind of a crapshoot. It’s fun to make an educated guess, and astrologers who work with clients are often given permission to rectify a chart, but it’s still a guess. Even though I have a tremendous amount of respect for many astrologers, I find myself giving them the side-eye when I discover that they’ve used rectification when drawing up a client’s horoscope. I’m often the first one to say “Sure, Jan” when they describe how they’ve come to a conclusion regarding an unknown time of birth.

Yes, I’ve speculated about birth times on this blog (and I’ll probably continue to do so in the future), but I make a point of demonstrating that I am actually speculating: not offering an educated guess disguised as a fact. I’ve actually come across celebrity charts that I’ve studied extensively, only to find out later that the time of birth was provided through the rectification process.

So, I’m not going to add to the confusion without making a point that I’m adding to the confusion. I spend a lot of time on this blog questioning the veracity of the birth times listed on astrotheme.com already. I don’t need to start publishing speculative birth times just to see them misappropriated by people who assume that everything they read on the internet is true.

Look at me, using my astrologer powers for good instead of evil. I’m an inspiration to you all!